Note: This, the longest section of the book, taken like the previous one from Pechorin's journal, is divided up, diary-like, into entries for particular days, and this is also how the summary here is divided.
11th May:
Pechorin, having arrived in the spa-town of Pyatigorsk the day before, briefly lyricises on the beauty of the scenery around and then goes to the Elisabeth spring to see the "spa society". There he encounters an old comrade-in-arms, the uncommissioned officer cadet, Grushnitsky, who has been wounded at the front and is convalescing. Grushnitsky points out Princess Ligovskoya and her daughter Mary to Pechorin. Later, having parted company, Pechorin observes Grushnitsky by the spring deliberately dropping his glass so that Princess Mary sees and picks it up for him, thinking him much worse injured and pitiful than he in fact is. Grushnitsky and Pechorin walk back together through the town and the latter deliberately scorns Grushnitsky's praise of the young princess and then when they pass her window he presumptuously stares at her through his lorgnette, giving rise to an indignant look from her.
13th May:
Pechorin receives a visit from his sharp-witted and observant friend, Doctor Werner. They discuss the contrariness of their own natures and then speak of Grushnitsky and the princesses. Werner tells Pechorin that Mary believes that Grushnitsky wears a grey soldier's greatcoat because he has been reduced to the ranks for duelling and Pechorin asks him to leave the young princess thus disillusioned in order to provide him with the opportunity to amuse himself at Grushnitsky's expense. Further conversation about the princesses and the people they receive in their house reveals that an old love of Pechorin - Vera - is in town with her elderly husband, something that makes Pechorin rather mournful.
That evening, walking in town, Pechorin sees Mary sitting on a bench surrounded by young men. He therefore deliberately sits nearby and by telling amusing tales lures all of them away from her to him, thus neatly attracting the young princess's curiosity and pique.
16th May:
Pechorin congratulates himself that over the last two days through various subtle means he has attracted Mary's definite dislike. He also tells Grushnitsky, who is obviously much taken by Mary, that he thinks that she already loves him, trying thus to provoke him to confide his feelings.
Walking on one of the hills around the town, Pechorin encounters and kisses his former love, Vera, who is consumptive and still deeply in love with Pechorin. Pechorin promises to get an invitation to the house of Princess Ligovskaya so that the two of them can meet again there.
Out riding that evening in the costume of a native Circassian he spots Mary and Grushnitsky riding with some others and rides out from behind a bush to give them a shock (at this time people were still scared by the possibility of attacks on Russians by mountain bandits).
Later, Pechorin meets Grushnitsky, who has just been at the princesses' house, and who tells him how annoyed Mary is with him for his riding stunt earlier in the day.
21st May:
Pechorin comments that he still has not met the princesses and has been rebuked for not procuring an invitation by Vera. Grushnitsky is following Mary everywhere. He also remarks that at the subscription ball at the restaurant saloon the next day he is going to dance the mazurka with Princess Mary.
22nd May:
At the ball Pechorin dances with Mary and saves her from the advances of a very drunken dragoon captain, for which he receives the gratitude of both Mary and her mother. In the course of conversation Pechorin also reveals to Mary that Grushnitsky is in fact only a cadet and not an officer reduced to the ranks.
23rd May:
Pechorin meets Grushnitsky, who confides his love for Mary and asks him to observe her that evening for signs of her feelings, because it seems that since Pechorin's revelation about him being a cadet she is no longer interested in him. They go together to Princess Ligovskaya's house where Pechorin is implored again by Vera to curry the old princess's favour in order to facilitate their meetings. Pechorin is casually scathing about Mary's singing and fails to make conversation with her later. He reveals that he knows that Mary will fall in love with him and spends the rest of the evening talking to Vera.
29th May:
Pechorin continues his schemes to attract Mary and successfully draws her attention completely away from Grushnitsky, about whom she is now very reticent.
3rd June:
Pechorin contemplates his callous behaviour in trying to win the heart of a young girl whom he does not love, thinking over his own ability for love and musing the nature of passions.
p>Grushnitsky receives his commission and comes to tell Pechorin. That evening they join a large party on a walk and Pechorin walks with Mary, who reveals that she is scared of the darkness of his character. Pechorin saddens her with a description of the pitiful nature of his mental state and then asks her if she has ever been in love. On the return walk she is very quiet and obviously lost in thought. Pechorin senses the first stage of his triumph but bemoans the predictability of the whole affair.4th June:
Pechorin sees Vera, who, believing him to be in love with Mary is very jealous. She makes Pechorin promise to go to Kislovodsk, another nearby spa-town where she is going in two days, and rent the house next to the one she will be sharing with the Ligovskayas. Finding out about a ball the next evening from Grushnitsky, who is hoping to spend the whole evening dancing with Mary in his new officer's uniform, Pechorin himself engages her for the mazurka when he sees her later at her house.
5th June:
At the ball both Pechorin and Mary slight Grushnitsky on his appearance in his new officer's uniform. He is furious at this and also at the fact that Pechorin has engaged her for the mazurka. For the rest of the evening Pechorin is not able to get near her, as it seems there is a plot to keep her otherwise engaged, mainly dancing with Grushnitsky. Pechorin, however, is not worried, as he knows that this will only make her want to be in his company even more in the long run.
6th June:
Pechorin sees Vera as she leaves for Kislovodsk. She looks reproachful. He spends an hour at the princesses' house but does not see Mary, who is ill. He also sees Grushnitsky, who seems very put out. Feeling that something is missing in account of having not seen Mary Pechorin wonders if he is in love, but quickly dismisses the idea.
7th June:
Pechorin visits Mary at her house and finds her upset and claiming that he does not respect her. He leaves her crying. Later he hears from Werner the rumour that is about town that he intends to marry the young princess, and realises that this gossip must be being spread by Grushnitsky. He therefore resolves that Grushnitsky should not get away with his behaviour.
10th June:
Pechorin has now been three days in Kislovodsk, on each of which he has seen Vera. Grushnitsky has arrived the day before, now hardly acknowledges Pechorin and seems to have become a little aggressive in his manner.
11th June:
Pechorin dines at the lodgings in Kislovodsk of Princess Ligovskaya, who has that day arrived with Mary.
12th June:
Pechorin rides one evening with a large group including Princess Mary to see the sun set through a circular stone called the ring. On the return journey they have to ford a stream. Mary, looking down, grows faint and Pechorin just saves her from falling from the saddle. He kisses her on the cheek. She tries to find out from him if he loves her, and when he refuses to answer she leaves him for the company of the others.
On his way home Pechorin creeps up to a window to look into an officers' drinks party and overhears a dragoon captain and Grushnitsky plotting to make a fool of Pechorin in a duel, the idea being that the pistols will not be loaded and that Pechorin will "funk it" and thus be humiliated. Pechorin is furious and resolves that Grushnitsky will pay dearly. He cannot sleep all night.
The next morning he meets Mary at the well and she tells him how she will give up anything for the man she loves and that she can overcome family objections to the two of them marrying. Pechorin replies by saying that he does not love her, and she, destroyed, asks him to leave her.
14th June:
Pechorin examines his reasons for always shying away from marriage and tells how when he was young an old woman told his mother his fortune and said that he would die through a bad wife.
15th June:
Vera arranges for Pechorin to come and see her at night while everybody in the house including the servants and the princesses are at a magic show in the assembly rooms. Vera once again proclaims her love for him and he stays with her until two in the morning, when he lowers himself into the garden from her balcony. As he descends he peeks through the curtains of Princess Mary's room on the balcony below and is set about by Grushnitsky and the dragoon captain, who have been lying in wait for him. A shot is fired and he manages to escape and run back to bed, where seconds later he is disturbed by Grushnitsky and the captain apparently asking for help in capturing Circassian thieves. He tells them to go away.
16th June:
While lunching at a restaurant with Vera's husband Pechorin overhears Grushnitsky telling a group of people that it was he in the garden the night before and that he had been with Mary. Pechorin challenges him to a duel, which he accepts. Pechorin takes Werner as his second while the dragoon captain is Grushnitsky's. Werner finds out that there is another plot afoot to fix the duel and thinks that the captain plans to load Grushnitsky's pistol and not Pechorin's. However, Pechorin tells him not to worry. Pechorin, writing that night before the duel contemplates his feelings on death and then there is a break in the flow of the journal. The tale is continued by Pechorin writing when he has already been six weeks at the fort with Maxim Maximych, and he now looks back at the events of the duel and the conclusion of his affairs with Princess Mary and Vera.
On the morning of the duel, having not slept, Pechorin rides with Werner out to the desolate spot where the duel is to take place. Werner offers the men the opportunity of settling the dispute amicably, but Grushnitsky will not give in to Pechorin's demand for a public apology and they must therefore fight. Pechorin suggests that they fight on a narrow ledge overhanging a gorge to ensure that whoever is shot will certainly die as he topples over the edge. Grushnitsky wins the toss to shoot first and having hesitated grazes Pechorin's knee. They swap places and then Pechorin says that his gun has not been loaded. Werner loads the pistol, Pechorin offers Grushnitsky the chance to apologise but he refuses and is shot from the cliff.
Pechorin rides alone until evening before going home. When he returns he finds a note from Werner saying that he is safe from any enquiries about the duel. He also finds a letter from Vera saying that she has left, that she still loves him and that she is tormented to know that he is duelling and because she does not know if he loves Mary or not. Having read it Pechorin leaps on his horse and rides madly after her, but his horse is already exhausted and collapses and dies. He finally gets home at five in the morning and sleeps until it is dark the next evening.
Werner warns Pechorin that Mary has had a nervous breakdown and that the old princess knows that he fought over her. The next morning Pechorin is ordered to proceed to the fort and he goes to say goodbye to Princess Ligovskaya. She reveals that she knows of the duel and goes on to say that if it will make her daughter happy she will be glad for Pechorin to marry her. Pechorin asks to speak to Mary alone and when he does tells her that he has only been making fun of her and that therefore she cannot love him, but must instead despise him. She answers simply: "I hate you." Pechorin leaves her, and then the town an hour later.